Even as bloggers, message boarders and downloaders queue up to dance on the grave of the printed music press, one publication – a title that resolutely looks back to a distant past rather than forward to the digital dawn – is proving that the music newspaper can thrive. Stool Pigeon, a title founded with the express purpose of covering music in the form of a Victorian tabloid newspaper, this month celebrates its fifth anniversary.

From an initial print run of 10,000, it's now up to 60,000, given away free in 72 towns and cities. They'd print more if they had any means of getting them to the readers, but given that they are hand-distributed – editor Phil Hebblethwaite and his colleague Melissa Bohlsen drive 2,500 miles between them in a fortnight to deliver the issues – it's not feasible to print any more just now.

Hebblethwaite founded the paper, which is published five times a year, with Mickey Gibbons, inspired by the desire to create a publication that appealed exactly to them. Initial funding came from Levi's, where a marketing executive gave them £10,000, largely because he liked the name – he'd once been a house music producer, and had a minor hit with a record that sampled Kid Creole's Stool Pigeon.

What sets Stool Pigeon apart in a world where you can read record reviews everywhere isn't so much the information in the paper as the way it's presented, particularly in what one might, at a stretch, call the news pages. "Wet Paint dripping in confidence at dry run for Bloc Party tour" reads one of Hebblethwaite's favourite headlines; "Wolf People as good as a bit of howl's your father" proclaims another. "Rabbit-liking singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens is not a happy bunny at the moment" offers a standfirst. "Think of all the inspirational artists like Kasabian and Florence and the Machine nominated for the Mercury prize this year, and they have to go and give it to the token deaf girl, Speech Debelle," writes columnist Miss Prudence Trog. "In the end, the judging panel couldn't help themselves, giving the nod to disability over talent. And the fact that she's black, a girl and was brought up by wolves went in her favour too."

In short, this is not a publication in which you will see an article headed "New Yeah Yeah Yeahs album due in April".

Hebblethwaite admits to spending a disproportionate amount of time on headlines and page furniture (ie the stuff that's not the actual article) – hours, in some cases – but without that attention to detail, it would just be another indie publication (albeit one that can get interviews from big acts). And its identity as a print title is vital. "This is a love affair with the printed word," Hebblethwaite says. "We go to libraries to study old newspapers – we will never just be a website, and I've never thought of the internet as a threat. In a way, Stool Pigeon is the equivalent of a vinyl record."

The celebrations begin with the 25th edition of Stool Pigeon, which will appear in London shops and clubs from 8 February, and the rest of the UK a week later. There will be three books published in March, including Billy Childish's intriguingly titled Bombs, Buggery and Buddhism. And to cap it all off there will be a party at the Amersham Arms in London on March 13, for those who want to wave their inky fingers in the air.